ROLAND S. MARTIN: White Folks Can Talk About Race

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume went on Bill O’Reilly Monday night to seek comfort and reassurance that he is not a racist. Forgive me if I don’t shed any tears.

Hume was perturbed by a few accusations hurled at him on Twitter—like that doesn’t happen all the time—that he was racist for comments he made on Fox News Sunday. The panel was discussing Attorney General Eric Holder’s complaints about mistreatment at the hands of Republicans in DC.What raised the ire of Hume and so many others on the all-white Fox News Sundaypanel was the fact that Holder dared to complain about the mistreatment he and President Obama have received.Because he made those comments at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference—voila!—Holder must be playing the race card. If you watch conservative Fox News, and then listen to conservative talk radio and read conservative websites and blogs, that was the general conclusion. Nowhere in Holder’s speech did he even mention race, but for Hume and the others, his comments were a dog whistle.

To read Roland’s Daily Beast commentary in its entirety visit The Daily Beast.